Gathering and analyzing user data in new product development (NPD), both qualitative and quantitative, can be a strong driver for innovation in companies. While ideally user data should be obtained through direct interactions between NPD departments and targeted users, time and cost restrictions often make this impossible within organisations. Moreover, in larger companies, user data is not always shared across departments and/or is not presented in a way that is useful for NPD departments. This paper presents a tool specially developed for the NPD department of a large company in the retail branche to collect and combine user data generated by various departments and use this for inspiration for new product ideas. The tool is based on theory of empathy in design and on the requirements of the NPD department of this company

Products play a role in our everyday lives. Insight into the experiences of people in their everyday lives is of great use for designing products. For example, the contexts in which products are used (physical, social, culture etc.) and the state (excited, tired, concentrated etc.) of the users influence how they experience using products. However, in design practice using this type of diverse, subjective and multi-layered information, as inspirational input for the design process, is a recent development.
In this research project, I explored how this information can be communicated in such a way that it supports designers (1) to empathise with users, (2) to be inspired to create new product ideas, and (3) to be engaged to use this information in their design processes.
By a set of eight explorative studies in collaboration with industrial practice (varying from a small design firm to a multinational telecom company) the current situation in design practice is investigated, tools to communicate this type of information are designed and explored in use, and a theoretical framework is created to organise the elements which play a role in this communication.
The filled in framework and a set of guidelines for practitioners to successfully communicate rich experience information in design are the results. The framework folds out how the three main qualities (empathy, inspiration and engagement) can be achieved by setting in mechanisms and means. The guidelines show various examples of how these qualities can be supported.

Understanding learners’ minds has become one of the major issues of some methodologists in education system. The entire matter is learning.
It seems obvious to me it is necessary to explain what learning is in terms of knowledge, in the widest sense.
We should also try to find out what kind of cognitive structure is behind of it regarding all learning ways; such as learning by discovery, analogy, research, design, instruction, being taught, experience, repeating, e_learning, etc. These should be applied through a ‘creative’ learning and teaching style.
Could educators ever teach well enough unless they have a proper empathy for students? It is all
known to us that common sense helps teachers without much effort to understand what’s on student’s mind; yet, it seems to me more fruitful if we understand more about what and how learners think besides trying to imagine the ways they reason.
It is also essential to create internal (eliminating emotional blocks, activating students’ knowledge, etc.) and external (richness of teaching material, environment, structure of education, easy access to learning materials, etc.) learning environment to free learners’ minds from blockings so that they and educators can have better understanding of mutual state of minds. What are these emotional blocks and how can they be minimized? Do learners need, necessarily, psychotherapists to get rid of those emotional blocks; or should educators be well-educated and trained to struggle with them?
Learners need clear representations. Well-representation of teaching material is the backbone of teaching method through Socratic interactive way so that learners can owe the knowledge.
Educators should act creatively to train and educate learners how to learn and think efficiently with a great pleasure. Creativity is a very complex mental act; it needs definitely, to be explained in terms of cognition. What is the cognitive structure of creative process? Can it be instructed up to a certain level?
Whatever ‘creative’ method, depending on subject, educators may use is plausible if they have a good enough empathy for learners in the course of Socratic behavior by taking emotional blocks of students into account.

Problem Statement
The most standard used process for developing software is currently Agile. Agile splits up the design process in so called two week “sprints” thereby making this process fast and efficient for developers. But current methods of usertesting don’t fit with this fast-paced process as, they are time consuming and too extensive. Therefore results from the user tests become mostly “out-dated” and irrelevant for teams.
The same was the case at IceMobile, which is Holland’s largest mobile application producer, who developed award winning applications such as the Albert Heijn and the ABN AMBRO application. IceMobile shifted from an agency model to developing own products for the retail sector, making IceMobile responsible for the quality of the user experience (UX) of their products. Having a usertesting process that fitted with their Agile process became important
An empirical study was performed with two product teams, which showed developers having little knowledge about and empathy for their users.
Result
My proposal for IceMobile are the Flags sessions, containing a frequent process where the teams of IceMobile collaboratively analyse and evaluate the feedback of the user, by watching the interview of the UXlab via a live stream connection. With an effective way of clustering all insights and a fast interview process, the whole session only takes 1,5 hour over two days for the whole team. By frequently conducting flag sessions every sprint, the team builds up knowledge, creates more empathy, which makes results become more reliable. The sessions are flexible and take minimum amount of time, making them fit well with the Agile process of IceMobile.
The Flag sessions will involve the team in the usertests, thereby reducing the time of the usertesting process while increasing empathy for the user by the team. Therefore the team comes out of the sessions with more inspiration and motivation to change or develop new features for the user.